Such was the frustration of the Board of Selectmen with the Plymouth Housing Authority that at its last meeting the “R” word was spoken out loud.

By Frank Mandfmand@wickedlocal.com

PLYMOUTH – Until this past Tuesday night it had only been whispered, but such was the frustration of the Board of Selectmen with the Plymouth Housing Authority that at its last meeting the “R” word was spoken out loud.

“Recall!”

It was yet another emergency meeting of the board, with only the Authority’s ban on window air conditioners in senior housing on the agenda.

Housing Authority members had been invited but were not represented.

Board Chairman Ken Tavares spoke first, expressing disappointment that the Authority was not in attendance, frustration with the state’s response to the request for a variance from the relevant codes, and concern with the condition of more than one senior housing facility in town.

Tavares had visited both the Southfield and Castle Hill senior housing facilities last week, and said that while it wasn’t the hottest day of the year a unit without air conditioning that he had visited was “very uncomfortable.”

A solution to the problem seemed to be at hand the past few weeks when local businesses and individuals donated funds and window air conditioners in order to provide relief to sweltering residents. This was in response to an effort coordinated by Plymouth residents Ken Buechs and Steve Lydon.

Twenty air conditioners were installed at Southfield, and another 20 were expected to be installed at the Castle Hill facility.

But at Castle Hill it was discovered that the electrical system at that facility could not handle the extra load.

“Unfortunately, in talking with tenants we found out that if you plug in more than one appliance, you can blow a fuse,” Tavares said. “We wouldn’t want to do anything that would compound the problem.”

Tavares said the more they look into conditions at these older housing facilities, the more issues they discover.

One persistent concern, Tavares said, is the lack of trust between the Authority and the tenants.

“This needs to become an Authority that is more user friendly,” Tavares said. “You have to be buzzed into their office, and that sends the wrong message.”

Town Meeting Rep. Russ Shirley suggested that the Authority might be doing more than sending the wrong message; it may be in violation of the open meeting laws.

Shirley went onto the town’s website and printed out the agendas and meeting minutes of the Housing Authority’s monthly meetings, and was dismayed at what he found: very little at all.

Meeting agendas were vague, at best, and the minutes of those same meetings were almost blank.

Take for example the minutes of the meeting on July 6.

There are three pages of minutes for that meeting, each with a heading (including “Discussion of Air Conditioning Policy”) but under each heading the page is blank.

“That’s not transparency,” Shirley said, “and that does not comply with the open meeting laws.”

Shirley made an official request to the Authority for additional meeting minutes and said that if he did not receive it in a timely manner he would file a complaint with the attorney general’s office.

Shirley also acknowledged that he has taken out papers to seek a seat on the Authority at next May’s town election, but the Housing Authority may need more than one new member.

“I’m a little bit at a loss as to where to go this evening, and what we have to do” Tavares said, as the meeting concluded.

“I would like to have a letter, with the board’s permission, go off to the Housing Authority tomorrow saying we will have representatives of the town meet with people on the state level, to see what action can be taken. Now if they don’t want to do that, if it’s going to be the status quo, there is only one option left.”

“People have come to me and asked for a recall, and I have said to them, I don’t think we are there, number one, because we don’t want to lose a lot of experience in one sweep,” Tavares said. “But I am saying that tonight publicly. I hesitate, because I am not looking for a headline; only looking to say this is being talked about. Forms have been printed!”

“You have to know that you just can’t stand behind the law and say ‘this is how we have to operate, we don’t have any choice,’” Tavares said. “I don’t believe that for a minute. I’ve been involved in local government for too many years not to know there are ways to do things, to get around obstacles, if you are doing it for the right reason.

“We may not get everything done we want done between now and Labor Day,” Tavares said, “but there is going to be another summer. We need to start planning for it now.”

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